Synaxis of All the Saints of Switzerland
Prayers to Saint Wiborada
Troparion (Tone 5)
As a house, you built a cell for yourself / and thereby emulated wisdom. / There you served your Lord, / who gave you mouth and wisdom. / So did you honour your name / and advised clergy, nobility and people. / Pray to Christ the Divine Wisdom, // that he also enlightens our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 4)
Wisdom utters her voice in the street, / said the preacher of old. / You, O god-wise Wiborada / inclined your ear to her/ and applied your heart to understanding. / In body you have turned away from the world / to turn to our cares and needs / with divine advice, / whose name means female advice. / Pray to Christ the “Angel of the Great Council” // that His wisdom will also enter our hearts.
Prayer to St. Martyr Nun Wiborada for divine advice and assistance
You, O holy and wise martyr Nun Wiborada, have allowed yourself to be walled up in the seclusion of your cell as an incluse, for you desired the truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts learned wisdom. The Lord has given you mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. Through you, He bound princes at his pleasure and protected your monastery from the onslaught of the Hungarians.
Now we come before you humbly and burdened, we who are at the end of our wits. See the worries that oppress us. See the timidity of our hearts. See also our will to do everything according to the will of God. Thus we ask of you: Give us your advice, as you advised Bishop Ulrich and Abbot Engelbert; correct us as you corrected Duke Burchart; help us to proceed with wisdom in the matter that troubles us; encourage us to seek God's will, not ours. O Holy Mother Wiborada, pray to the Lord, without whom they labour in vain that build and watchmen stay awake in vain, that He guides us to decide according to His will. For with Him is our hope, and in Him is all the wisdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen
Prayer to Saint Wiborada, martyr nun, who removes obstacles on the way to church
O highly honoured Mother, you encountered the resistance of the devil, who sought to turn you aside from your holy path through terrifying images and violent apparitions. But you, O warrior of God, triumphed over all opposition by the sign of the Cross. You subjected the demons to God’s command and set your foot upon their necks, so that they cried out in fear: “Wiborada has crushed our backs and arms with her step; therefore, we can no longer delay our flight,” and they were forced to retreat.
We now turn to you, O our model in the following of Christ, we who are likewise beset by the devil,who seeks to prevent us from following our longing for the Kingdom through the wisdom of this world, through the pressure of people, and through the unrest of our passions.
Lend us the strength of your arm, lend us your trust in the power of the cross, which overcomes all evil. Strengthen your servant N. N. / us on the way to Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and who freely gives from the spring of the water of life to those who thirst. Ask him, who is himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, to make straight on his/her/our path to the lord, to soften hearts, to bring peace and to let goodness grow.
Be yourself, venerable Mother, his/her/our companion on the way: ward off the attacks of the enemy and strengthen us on our path with endurance, patience and wisdom so that we are not overcome by obstacles but by them grow in the service of the Lord. Take the servant of God N. N. / us by the hand and lead him / her/ us into the house of God and into the community of the Body of Christ, so that, grafted into the Lord, the true vine, we may grow into the kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Prayer after the Akathistos to Saint Wiborada, martyr nun
O holy martyr nun Wiborada, recluse and counsellor of Saint Gall. Like the daughter of Raguel, you turned away from childish games at an early age, you united Martha and Mary in your following, you conquered demons with the sword of faith and proved yourself to be a prophetess of God. Wisdom has built a house in you and carved its seven pillars. Pray to God that he may grant us too to erect these pillars in our lives:
Support us in taking the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge, that it may become for us the source of life; direct our feet to the Church, that we may serve Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life; teach us, as you did, to weave Scripture into our mouths and hearts; stand by us with your confidence in the Lord, that we too may overcome the temptations of evil; Guide us to avoid the counsel of the wicked and turn to the Lord, whose counsel is wonderful and whose ways are full of mercy; Strengthen us to gain insight with all that we have; Help us to gain divine wisdom, which is sweet to our souls, so that we may calm the storm of passions and find peace in the distractions of our time.
You vigilantly awaited your visitation; share this vigilance with us, for we know neither the day nor the hour. You said in the Lord: "This dwelling, which has been granted to me by God's goodness, I will not leave empty as long as I live." Strengthen us also to persevere in what God has given us, so that we may cry out with you: "For if the Lord, as I hope and believe, is my helper, then what my heart has resolved in Him cannot be shaken." To Him be all honour and glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.
